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In following Christ there this is nothing more essential than faith. Faith is what binds us to Christ. Remember that great string of truths that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Faith is the piece of that great string of pearls that applies God’s grace to us. As one scholar put it, “Faith saves because it ‘takes hold of Christ and believes that my sin and death are damned and abolished in …Christ.’ It unites believers to Christ.”*
This understanding is essential to us as believers and Jesus has been pushing followers, the 12 and us today, towards faith/belief/trust…towards a reliance upon him for all things. Come to find out, it is the most important weapon in the toolbox of a Christian.
READ Mark 9:14-29
Setting (14-18)
We get a quick note on the happenings of the moment in order to set the stage for the meat of this section. There is an argument happening with the scribes pertaining to the inability of the disciples to cast out a demon that is making a person mute. This has generated a lively conversation as James, John, Peter, and Jesus approach the crowd.
Jesus’ Response (19-27)
Faithless generation. The OT is replete with this phrase “faithless generation” (Deut 32:5, 20 / Is 6:11 / Jer 5:21-22). The people of God struggled throughout their long history of remaining faithful, in trusting the Lord YHWH above all other options and ultimately above all other gods. There was and is a history of…Perpetually disbelief, nothing has changed. We have keyed in on the constant theme of faith. Jesus through encouragement, teaching, correcting, and healing has been pushing all who would follow him to trust him above all things There is a running thread throughout all of Mark calling people towards faith, and not only faith but faith in Jesus. You see Jesus is the only adequate sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. No one from God’s people since the beginning of time has been able to walk the faithful path like Jesus. So what is the solution…Jesus tells us in the very next statement…
If you can! All things are possible…If you can! very different then the leper man who cried out if you will (Mk 1:40). All things are possible for the one who believes! Meaning that if one does not believe, well, nothing is possible. We saw this most clearly back when Jesus visited his hometown. The scriptures say back in chapter 6 that Jesus could do no mighty works among them and that he marveled at their unbelief. And now here he states the same thing, just in a different way. He says, “All things are possible with belief!”
But it might be wise to pause a second and ask to what extent does “all things” apply? Does that mean that God is obligated to do whatever I want as long as I believe? Should we take this in an Amelia Bedelia way? Let me clarify by given an unclear answer…yes and no. The scriptures, and certainly Jesus throughout the book of Mark has pushed towards faith/belief/trust as the thing that works…that brings salvation to humans’ hearts. Faith is what applies the gospel message to our lives, so belief/faith are essential elements to the Christian for salvation and ongoing living.
We celebrated just this morning the gospel through observing the Lord’s supper and in doing so, we hope to increase our faith in Christ as we remember his grace in saving us. Faith/belief is essential to seeing God move in your life and at LITD. But faith does not supersede God’s sovereignty. He ultimately is in control and will always do what is best for us. This is why Jesus makes plain that he can and there should be no doubt in his abilities. He can do all things and one can experience it when they believe! “This affirmation does not mean that faith can accomplish anything but that those who have faith ‘will set no limits to the power of God.’”**
Jesus is calling this man to trust first in who he is, then let him, the God-man, work. He is calling him to trust like a young child who looks at their father with complete trust and belief. Today is father’s day, it is amazing how children look at their dad and believe there is nothing he cannot do. Now, of course, they grossly overestimate our abilities as dads, but they believe we can reach anything up on a tall shelf, that we are super strong, or that we can repair any broken toy. I remember recently Everett bringing me a mangled toy beyond repair and with no tears and complete confidence handed it to me and said, “You can fix this.”
This is the type of trust one should have towards Christ, that when you look towards him there is comfort brought about through a deep trust, belief, faith in him. That when all is mangled beyond repair you look towards him and with complete confidence say…You can fix this and if you don’t, you can help me make sense of all this. You can take my brokenness and make me well
Not only should we have faith in Jesus, but Jesus apparently is even responsible for giving us faith, why else would the father cry out…I believe, HELP! my unbelief…what a prayer. A prayer of dependence asking Jesus for the extraordinary gift of faith. This poses an interesting question, “What is the source of someones’ faith?” Is it generated within us? Do we just need to muster up enough willpower and then BAM we have it?! NO beg Jesus to help!
Jesus cast out the demon…once again Jesus overpowers darkness and reveals again to be the only one capable to push back the darkness, the only one capable of making us well. He is the source of our belief and when we believe and trust him, well, things happen!
Disciples don’t understand (28-29)
Why? The disciples perhaps are saying, “We employed all the tactics. We did everything perfectly and did not miss any steps. We said the right things used the right technics, so why could we not cast out the demon?” Jesus responds with, “This one must be driven out by prayer.” This casting out of this demon was tricky and apparently needed a deep dependence that is created through prayer. So the big point in this text is…
Belief is generated by Jesus and grown in prayer.
The source of our faith can be nothing other than Jesus, he is the founder and then perfecter of it, as Hebrews 12 tells us. It is him that originates it and then continues to call us deeper. It seems that Jesus is the one who gives us the extraordinary gift of faith. This is what Paul seemed to think as well, when he says in Eph 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Grace and faith both are gifts from God…extraordinary, to say the least! This faith—that is given by God and generated in us as we look towards Christ—is grown in prayer.
The nature of faith is so clearly seen here…it is hard to maintain when life is hard. We desperately need Jesus to continue to work faith into our hearts, and it seems the mode by which that happens is prayer, close communion/fellowship with him.
This text is calling us to deepen our faith in Jesus through prayer. I am going to make a ridiculous ask, would you join me this week in prayer? Would you pray and ask God to work deep in your heart an unshakable faith?
Brothers and Sisters, faith and prayer make for a powerful combination!
*Thomas Schreiner, Faith Alone, 45.
**A. E. J. Rawlinson, St. Mark (Westminster Commentaries; London: Methuen & Co. 1931), 124 in David E. Garland, Mark (The NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 355.